They were scared. The SU openly talked of a nuclear attack on China in a CC meeting, and it got filtered back to Mao. That said, Deng was head of the negotiations and heavily favoured the split. After this, and more so after Nixon in China developed a detente with the US they began to do whatever they thought they had to to maintain their independent policy against the SU.
Khruschev undoubtedly was revisionist and a bad choice in many ways, but there's a saying Catholics have, "Better to be a heretic than a schismatic." Unless someone has gone full Pol Pot, don't fucking split.
They were scared. The SU openly talked of a nuclear attack on China in a CC meeting, and it got filtered back to Mao. That said, Deng was head of the negotiations and heavily favoured the split. After this, and more so after Nixon in China developed a detente with the US they began to do whatever they thought they had to to maintain their independent policy against the SU.
Khruschev undoubtedly was revisionist and a bad choice in many ways, but there's a saying Catholics have, "Better to be a heretic than a schismatic." Unless someone has gone full Pol Pot, don't fucking split.